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51

.1393 JDIAN NOTES

no. 13 ) MONOGRAPHS

NMAIREF Edited by F. W. Hodge

A SERIES OF PUBLICA-
TIONS RELATING TO THE
AMERICAN ABORIGINES

HUNTING CHARMS OF THE

MONTAGNAIS AND THE

MISTASSINI

BY

FRANK G. SPECK

and
GEORGE G. HEYE

NEW YORK

MUSEUM OF THE AMERICAN INDIAN

HEYE FOUNDATION

1921

This series of Indian Notes and
Monographs is devoted primarily to
the publication of the results of studies
by members of the staff of the Mus-
eum of the American Indian, Heye
Foundation, and is uniform with His-
panic Notes and Monographs, pub-
lished by the Hispanic Society of
America, with which organization this
Museum is in cordial cooperation.

Only the first ten volumes of Indian
Notes and Monographs are numbered.
The unnumbered parts may readily be
determined by consulting the List of
Publications issued as one of the series.

INDIAN NOTES
AND MONOGRAPHS

Edited by F. W. Hodge

A SERIES OF PUBLICA-
TIONS RELATING TO THE
AMERICAN ABORIGINES

HUNTING CHARMS OF THE

MONTAGNAIS AND THE

MISTASSINI

BY

FRANK G. SPECK

AND

GEORGE G. HEYE

NEW YORK

MUSEUM OF THE AMERICAN INDIAN

HEYE FOUNDATION

1921

HUNTING CHARMS OF THE

MONTAGNAIS AND THE

MISTASSINI

BY

FRANK G. SPECK

AND

GEORGE G. HEYE

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PREFACE

HE specimens described herein
and the notes pertaining to
them were obtained by Dr
Frank G. Speck, of the Uni-
versity of Pennsylvania, and Mr R. S.
Speck, during a visit to Lake St John,
Quebec, during the summer of 1920. Al-
though a comprehensive collection of
Montagnais and Mistassini ethnological
objects was gathered, only five of the class
of specimens known as nimdhan were
obtained.

It is to be hoped that further investiga-
tions among these people by Dr Speck,
in behalf of this Museum, will bring to
light other facts regarding these interest-
ing symbolic objects.

George G. Heye,

Director.

INDIAN NOTES

HUNTING CHARMS OF THE

MONTAGNAIS AND THE

MISTASSINI

By Frank G. Speck and George G.
Heye

T IS impossible to categorize
the nimdban (the Montagnais
name for this object) in exact
terms. In general it is a
prayer for game, a symbol of the hunter's
body, his life, a symbol of the spirit which
leads him to his game, a means of com-
municating with the shades of the ani-
mals, an object of ceremonial importance
worn at dances performed by the hunter
over the body of the slain animal. The
nimaban is probably more, but much
remains to be learned by collecting more
examples and ascertaining their indi-
vidual significance.

INDIAN NOTES

HUNTING CHARMS

The term nimdhan seems to signify
"dance-cord," from nimi-, *Mance," and
the common Algonkian stem -aban, denot-
ing "string," ''length of something plia-
ble," which occurs in cognitive forms
throughout eastern dialects: compare, for
example, Penobscot -Abi (wo'bA^bi, ''wam-
pum;" aganiA^bi, "snowshoe string;"
maksAfiA^bij "moccasin string;" wu-
skwA^bi, "carrying strap"), and Malecite
-a^p\ Micmac -a^be. Most of these tribes
know the term nimdban as a pack-strap,
but its symbolic aspect is not emphasized
as among the northern St Lawrence divi-
sions of the group, so far as is now known.

Spread over an extremely wide range
of country, the various bands of the sub-
Arctic, semi-maritime hunters known in
literature as the Montagnais ("moun-
taineers"), exhibit considerable variation
in dialect and custom. From Hamilton
river in eastern Labrador, following the
coast of the Gulf of St Lawrence west
ward to the Saguenay, the Montagnais
are seafarers and forest nomads according
to season and fancy. There are two

INDIAN NOTES

HUNTING CHARMS

dialects on this stretch, which covers a
lineal distance of 800 miles and extends
about 200 miles toward the interior of
Labrador to the height of land dividing
the St Lawrence waters from those of the
Arctic. One dialect (a), spoken from
Moisie river eastw^ard, has phonetic and
grammatical peculiarities akin to the
Naskapi of the interior, and this is what
is known as the Coast Naskapi, as the
name was sanctioned years ago by Hind
and other early travelers. From the
Moisie westward to the Saguenay there
is another — the more typical Montag-
nais (b).

(a) Includes the Montagnais of Moisie,
Mingan, Romaine, Natashquan, St Au-
gustine, Eskimo river, and Hamilton inlet
on the coast, and possibly Xichicun lake
and Waswanipi lake in the interior.

(b) Includes the Montagnais proper of
Seven islands, Godbout, Bersimis, the
Papinachois of Manicouagan river and
lake, Escoumains, Tadousac, Chicoutimi,
and the now extinct band of Murray bay.

In the interior, at Lake St John, the

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HUNTING CHARMS

dialect is related, but grades off toward
the Mistassini and Cree.

Dialect, however, is no criterion of
culture; accordingly there are variations
in material culture, art, and mythology,
which make substantial differences be-
tween the bands, necessitating the forma-
tion of groups into which they may be
classified on the basis of both culture
and dialect. A long and exhaustive
survey and full collections will be made
before these groups are finally determined,
but at present the collections and in-
formation allow the Lake St John band,
or Pikwagami, to be classed as one; the
Chicoutimi, Tadousac, and Escoumains
bands as another; the Bersimis as an-
other, and so on eastward, band after
band, the rest awaiting more attention
before they can be grouped.

The three specimens of nimaban de-
scribed below are classified as the type of the
Pikwagami (^'Flat lake," Lake St John),
an interior Montagnais culture interme-
diate between that of the coast and that
of the eastern Naskapi and Mistassini.

INDIAN NOTES

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HUNTING CHARMS

11

The nimaban shown in pi. i was used
for a bear hunt, and is made of well-
tanned moose-skin. In form it closely
imitates a pack-strap, and in fact it
symbolizes one. The wide part is bound
on the upper edge with a red silk ribbon,
and on the lower offe with a similar
ribbon of green. The scene is em-
broidered in red, yellow, and light-blue
sewing silks. This magical object is
worn by the hunter who has had a
revelation about getting game in the
future. He carries this decorated strap
with him on the trail, and when, true to
the revelation, he gets his game, he wraps
it in this strap and brings it home. The
hunter keeps the strap in secret, more or
less, and does not show it lest it lose its
power to function as a safeguard against
starvation. The figures show trees on
each end, the trail and canoe, the hunter
with his axe, and the bear trying to cross
to a lake which has a cross trail. When
the hunter finds and kills the bear, he sits
down near it and smokes. After having
laid the bear out on its back with crossed

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12

HUNTING CHARMS

paws, he puts black tobacco in its mouth
and places the nimaban on its breast or
about the neck. Sometimes before this
is done the hunter places the nimaban
across his head, allowing the ends to fall
over his shoulders. He then dances
around the fallen game, at the same time
singing, thus expressing the hope that he
will have to utilize a pack-strap often in
bringing back game, and voicing his joy
at the success of his hunt.

The length of this specimen is 158-I
inches, and its extreme width at the
embroidered parfis 2| inches.

The next nimaban (pi. 11) is of tanned
moose-skin, and was made by Napani,
one of the oldest Montagnais hunters of
the Lake St John band. He said he used
this after returning from a hunt in which
he was under necessity to avert famine.
When the needed animal was killed, he
put this nimaban on his forehead, dancing
around it once or twice singing, rejoicing
for luck and success, and as a recompense
to the spirit of the beast. This specimen,
also, represents a pack-strap, and as in

INDIAN NOTES

HUNTING CHARMS

13

the former one just described, symbolizes
the desire to use a full-sized one in bring-
ing home a quantity of meat. There are
four tufts of red and black ribbons at-
tached; the red ones represent small
game, and the black ones bear. This
specimen is 55 inches long and i|^ inch
at its widest point.

PI. Ill illustrates an interesting nima-
ban, intended for a youth going on his
first caribou hunt with his father; it
was made for Awanic, son of Simon
Rafael. This specimen also symbolizes a
pack-strap, and is of soft-tanned caribou-
skin. The broad part is bound with a
lavender-colored cloth, attached to which
are red and green silk ribbons, and a small
piece of green ribbon is attached also to
the narrow ends, but close to the wide
part. The red ribbons signify small
game, the green ones large game. The
scene is embroidered in red, yellow, pink,
and green sewing silk, and represents in
the center the hunter on snowshoes in the
act of shooting a caribou. Behind him
is a tree on which is perched a loon;

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HUNTING CHARMS

while farther to the right is a lake con-
taining figures of a duck and a beaver.
On the left of the caribou figure is de-
picted another tree, and also a lake in
which is the figure of a gull. The curved
figures above and below both the ''lakes"
represent trails. This example is 71
inches long and 2^ inches wide.

Lake Mistassini is about 175 miles long
and half as wide; it lies approximately 30c
miles east of Hudson bay and 500 miles
north of the St Lawrence. A small Hud-
son's Bay Company's post is situated
there. For several hundred miles round
about the people known as Mictaci'niwi-
iuts {'' Big Rock people"), forming a band
of about 30 families, live and hunt. These
Mistassini are very interesting; they are
conservative, primitive, and live under
great economic stress, being occasionally
forced to choose between cannibalism or
starvation. In dialect they form a group
with the so-called Cree of Ruperts House
on James bay, and to a certain extent
with the Indians of Waswanipi. In cul-
ture this same group extends eastward to

INDIAN NOTES

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HUNTING CHARMS

15

and including the Naskapi. One might
say of them: genus, Naskapi; species,
Mistassini.

Part of this band was encountered
trading at Lake St John, whence they
had come some 400 to 700 miles from their
hunting grounds to trade.

The nimaban of the Mistassini are even
more highly conventionalized than are
those of the Montagnais, for they do not
take the form of pack-straps, but are
woven cords.

PI. IV shows a large, white-tanned
caribou-skin nimaban of four strands,
obtained from Mia'nckem. The nima-
ban is Mia'nckem himself, the loop seen
at the lower right-hand corner is his head,
the loose end his legs. He explained the
white coloring as symbolic of the caribou
which he needed for his sustenance. The
first ribbons symbolize: green, small
game; dark-blue, bear; red wool, beaver;
pink silk, lynx. In the middle the two
strings of blue and white glass beads
are the legs of the nimaban, and sym-
bolize caribou. The final pair of strings

AND MONOGRAPHS

16

HUNTING CHARMS

of beads are the hind-legs of the nimaban,
and the loose string ends are the tails
of the nimaban and symbolize ''trails of
game." Mia'nckem said that he did
not display his nimaban often, because
it weakened its power. He carried it in
his game-pouch, and when approaching
his victim often wound it about his
shoulders. If he took small game, he tied
the carcass in it and carried it suspended
thus over his shoulders, the head of the
nimaban (the loop) cleated over a stick
piercing the nostrils of the animal, like a
toggle (resembling the Eskimo method
of dragging home seals), the ''tails" of the
nimaban tied to the animal's right hind-
leg. In the case of large game, he left the
carcass with his nimaban stretched on the
animal's chest, its head to the animal's
head. Mia'nckem could sell the power
of his nimaban, but if he gave it away
or lent it, it would not function.

The length of the nimaban is propor-
tionate to the age of the owner, and in
this case is exactly 15 feet. Young men
have small ones, which are replaced by

INDIAN NOTES

z
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HUNTING CHARMS

17

longer ones as they grow stronger and
kill more animals.

Mia'nckem is about forty years of age.
There was more to learn from him re-
garding this specimen, but the absence
of a competent interpreter prevented the
obtaining of further information.

PI. V shows a small, smoked, caribou-
skin nimaban belonging to Metowe'cic's
son, who is about twelve years of age.
His mother had made this for the boy,
who was about to accompany his father
on one of his first more serious hunts.
The symbolism is as usual: a loop, the
hunter's head; the tuft of ribbon and
braid representing — blue ribbon, bear;
red braid, beaver; and red silk, small
game, these being the animals especially
desired in this case. The boy is taught
the individual symbolism by his father,
and instructed in the ceremonial pro-
cedure when he has killed a beast.

The tail is four-ply, and the two long
pieces tie the whole string together for
carrying purposes. When a beaver is
killed, the hunter pierces the septum of

AND MONOGRAPHS

18

HUNTING CHARMS

the animal's nose, inserts a stick as a
cleat, puts the loop or "head" of the
string about the cleat, and ties the two
longest strings of the "tail" around the
right hind-leg. He then smokes over the
beaver and carries it home, slung over his
shoulder on the nimaban. If he should
get a bear, being unable to carry it alone,
he would smoke first, then leave his
nimaban on the bear's chest, rolling the
animal on its back, the nimaban doubled
with its head toward the bear's head.
When an animal has been left, to enable
the hunter to return to camp for help,
it is believed no beast of prey will eat
the carcass while the nimaban is resting
on its chest. Possibly the man-smell on
the nimaban may be a safeguard.

Every hunter owns and carries a
nimaban on his excursions and renews it
from time to time according to some
religious prompting. It is a very subjec-
tive article, and the symbolism seems to
be somewhat individual. Several other
like specimens, which unfortunately could
not be obtained, were partly explained

INDIAN NOTES

f

HUNTING CHARMS

19

by the Mistassini, but complete infor-
mation regarding them was not available,
as the hunters do not betray their secrets
even to one another. The occasion for
doing so seldom arises, as each man is his
own ceremonial official and practises his
rites when he is alone. Individualism of a
generally similar type will be found to be
the keynote to the ceremonialism of all
the Algonkians of the eastern Canadian
and Hudsonian zones.

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